Posted on 05/28/2006 4:03:46 PM PDT by lunarbicep
Paul Gleason, who played the go-to bad guy in "Trading Places" and the angry high school principal in "The Breakfast Club," has died. He was 67.
Gleason's wife, Susan, says her husband died Saturday at a Burbank hospital of mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer linked to asbestos.
Gleason appeared in over 60 movies, including "Die Hard," "Johnny Be Good," and "National Lampoon's Van Wilder." Most recently, he made a handful of television appearances in hit shows such as "Friends" and "Seinfeld."
A native of Miami, Gleason was an avid athlete. Before becoming an actor, he played Triple-A minor league baseball for a handful of clubs in the late 1950s.
Gleason honed his acting skills in the mid-1960s with his mentor Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York.
Gleason is survived by his wife, two daughters and a granddaughter. Funeral plans are pending.
That is sad to hear. I enjoy his work.
Sad. A great character actor.
Sad to hear this...he was one of those actors, whose real name you may not know, but his face was so familiar, as he could turn up in any series or movie...that the thing about so many of these character actors...they do such fine work, and lend such a rich background in which the 'leading' actors and actresses work...
If it were not for the whole range of character actors in flms and TV, the leading actors would find themselves at a great loss...
Prayers for Paul Gleason and for his family...
I loved him in Trading Places.
Mesothelioma is a nasty way to go. RIP.
I'm very sorry to see this. Such a young-ish man. I can't remember what I saw him in, but his face is very familiar.
I was just in my office and I heard a ruckus.
This is a sad loss. He was a great character actor.
DWAYNE?!?!
NOOOOOO!!!!!!!
he was in a lot of movies & television-
Paul Gleason @ IMDb
Oh man, he was great. He made me laugh just as hard in 'Not Another Teen Movie'. RIP, Paul.
Can you describe the ruckus? :)
Just caught this film on TV the other day. A classic to 30-somethings like myself.
"Ya mess with the bull, you get the horns"
God Speed Sir. We're certainly getting older.
And here I thought I was the only person on FR with "Not Another Teen Movie" in my DVD collection.
Not You Too, LOL!
He was in this episode of Seinfeld:
Plot Summary for
"Seinfeld"
The Opposite (1994)
George decides that every instinct he ever had was wrong and decides to do the opposite, which causes his luck to turn around and he gets a girlfriend, job and apartment. Meanwhile Elaine's fortune take a downfall causing her to lose her boyfriend, job and apartment and become more like George.
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
I liked him in Die Hard too.
Oh, it was gonna come out eventually anyway.
My friends never understood why I had to take a TV and DVD player with me when I went fishing.
And then one day, I forgot to remove the DVD before coming home and they found it loaded.
I tried to talk around it, tried to blame it on sleepwalking, or a maid that I don't really have.
They didn't buy it, so I had to come clean.
I think "Not Another Teen Movie" is funny, and I'm never gonna change my opinion on it. It's what I am. It's how God made me.
I wish I could quit you "Not Another Teen Movie"!
Not to speak poorly of the dead, but I just realized that when this scene from "The Breakfast Club" was shot in 1984, Paul was only 45. Now that I'm only 7 years away from that, I really have to wonder what he did in his life to put that kind of milage....
He didn't put any extra mileage on himself.
This picture is NOT the scene from "The Breakfast Club" in 1985.
This picture is from 2001 when he re-played his principal role in "Not Another Teen Movie".
(With my luck, he'll be subbing in for St. Peter when I reach the Holy Gates. Extra detention time for me... :-/)
"I guess we got to get some more FBI guys"
IMDB.com lists his birth year as 1944. The obit says he passed at 67.
qam1, this has got to be a Gen X heads up. Breakfast Club did a good job of defining us in the 1980s.
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
That'd be three of us.
The photo is from a comedy parody walk on role in 'Not Another Teen Movie' which was pretty recent I think
Don't take it too hardly. The NATM director specifically set the scene up identically as Breakfast Club for extra impact. The only way to tell the difference between the two shots is Gleason's gray hair, wrinkles, and the angle of his "horns" sign relative to his body. I just don't have a pic from BC available for comparison to show you.
And yes... I have way too much time on my hands.
I liked him in Die Hard, too. "You're just part of the problem, DWAYNE!!!"
"Does Barry Manilow know you raided his wardrobe?"
can you describe the ruckus, sir?
Good actor. 67 is a lot younger than it used to be.
I'm sure i'm not the only one here can repeat that movie almost line for line.
"does barry manilow know you raided his wardrobe?"
Who knew Principal Vernon was a method actor, wow!
I haven't seen anything else either about asbestos exposure. It's pretty much the only way that you can get mesothelioma. A very painful way to die.
"Don't just stand their Powell, shoot that Russian bastard!"
Yes, I can recite every line....and was able to meet Paul a few years back after a movie premiere. I told him how me & my friends watched Breakfast Club so many times....blah blah blah....even gave him the Barry Manilow line & he didn't seem to mind. He even invited me to sit down in his booth.
Dang. There was a story about him not a year ago or so I think it was, and he seemed perfectly healthy.
RIP. That's young to go any more. Prayers for him and his family.
Dang. One of the great character actors, no matter who he was playing, I bought it completely. Rest in peace, Paul.
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